Textual Wars

Textual Wars

In response to the schismatic Protestants, the Council of Trent issued the following decree in 1546 concerning the authoritative version of Scripture: This holy Council … ordains and declares that the old Vulgate edition, which has been approved for use in the Church for so many centuries, is to be taken as authentic in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and expositions, and that no one should dare or presume to reject it under any circumstances whatsoever. [1]

 

The decree was carefully worded to avoid the complicated issue of textual corruptions in the Vulgate and to avoid denigrating the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Greek text of the New Testament.[2] The Council’s position was that the Vulgate had been the customary Bible of the Roman Catholic Church for roughly a thousand years and by long usage was held to be reliable in matters of faith and doctrine. Because it was the traditional text— and thereby linked with church tradition and authority— it had earned its status as the authoritative text. The decree essentially raised the Vulgate’s de facto status to de jure . The main purpose of the decree was to assert the authority of the traditional Scripture— and, by extension, the traditional authority of the Roman Catholic Church— against the Protestants and their bevy of vernacular translations.

John Calvin wrote in “Acts of the Council of Trent: With the Antidote” (1547), he concludes his treatise with the damning conclusion: “The sum is, that the spirit of Trent wished, by this decree, that Scripture should only signify to us whatever dreaming monks might choose.” The textual wars had begun.

Parallels Between FEBC and the Roman Catholic Church

The core argument is that both the FEBC and the Roman Catholic Church prioritize a specific, long-standing translation for its de facto (in practice) use and then elevate its status to de jure (by law or official decree).

In essence, this comparison highlights a similar pattern: an institution facing a challenge to its authority elevates a specific, traditional translation to a position of special authority, linking its defense to the preservation of its own heritage and doctrinal purity.

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[1] Trans. Richard J. Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible: Including a Translation of Foscarini’s Letter on the Motion of the Earth (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 182. The decree, issued on April 8, 1546, reads: “Insuper eadem sacrosancta synodus … statuit et declarant, ut haec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio, quae longo tot saeculorum usu in ipsa ecclesia probate est, in publicis lectionibus, disputationibus, praedicationibus et expositionibus pro authentica habeatur, et ut nemo illam rejicere quovis praetextu audeat vel praesumat.”

[2] See Hubert Jedin, A History of the Council of Trent , vol. 2, The First Sessions at Trent, 1545– 47 , trans. Ernest Graf (London: Nelson, 1961), 75– 98.